Kline Goes To Washington In Witty, Romantic Comedy

Kline A Winner In Witty Comedy

Film Review

May 07, 1993|By MALCOLM JOHNSON; Courant Film Critic

President Bill Mitchell looks and acts like an arrogant potentate who has lost contact with his country, his wife and himself. Dave Kovic behaves like a happy-go-lucky bleeding heart who enjoys impersonating the chief executive, making a bit of extra money riding a hog at a Chevrolet dealership.

Both the cold, womanizing president and down-to-earth, meek Dave are played with fine duality by Kevin Kline in Ivan Reitman's funny, witty, sentimental new Washington comedy, simply entitled "Dave." The genius of this uneven but winning film comes from Kline, who can be odious and engaging in a single shot as Bill Mitchell and Dave Kovic face each other, and from Gary Ross, who co-wrote "Big" and now shows what he can do on his own in another succintly named romantic comedy.

"Dave" boasts a tight, inventive plot, and sharp, insightful bits of dialogue, drawn from work Ross has done in politics for Ted Kennedy and Michael Dukakis, both Democrats, of course. But while the film has a decided liberal tilt -- it is possible to see Bill Mitchell as George Bush and Dave Kovic as Bill Clinton, as they eyeball one another with the wariness of two dogs -- the true villain of Reitman's film is the Machiavellian chief of staff. As played by Frank Langella with an icy ferocity that is more frightening than his Dracula, Bob Alexander comes across as a megalomaniac who sees himself as America's neofascist messiah.

Reitman and Ross begin their film with quick views of two men. A helicopter descends to the White House lawn, discharging Bill Mitchell and his chic first lady Ellen, endowed with style and hauteur by Sigourney Weaver. After showing themselves to the press as an elegant but close couple, they separate without a word, once out of public view. The camera then jumps to a jarringly incongrous scene, as someone who looks just like the president gallops out on a gigantic pig, and proceeds to spiel about the virtues of this particular Chevy dealership in the awkward platform manner of George Herbert Walker Bush.

As it develops, the president frequently employs doubles, and he is unhappy with his current stand-in. So a pair of Secret Service agents light up at the sight of the rider of the bucking swine, who looks just like Bill Mitchell and can do a fair imitation of him too. So Dave, whose real day-to-day job is running a temp agency, finds himself on a clandestine mission -- playing the president as he exits from a Washington political party. Dave overacts a bit, but he is good enough to be given the job on a more permanent basis. He is handed the acting assignment when Bill Mitchell suffers a stroke sometime after rolling wildly from a bed to the floor.

Kline's eager, gullible, impressed Dave must contend with his advisers, the Alexander Haig-like Bob Alexander, and the friendlier, more slippery press secretary amiably played by Kevin Dunn. There's a chilling glimpse of the real president as he lies comatose in a White House basement hospital, and a touching moment from Ben Kingsley as the "Boy Scout" Vice President Vance, who tells Dave of his early days, selling shoes.

At its heart though, "Dave" is a love story -- of a man who brings in his accountant friend, played with incredulous humor by Charles Grodin, to cut the budget, all to please the first lady. And as the playful but adoring Kline and the increasingly vulnerable Weaver depict the delicate courtship of Dave and Ellen, this new Washington merry-go-round shows that love and politics make strange, but oddly affecting bedfellows.

Rated PG-13, this film contains some rude, nasty talk, and a few sexual situations.